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Homemade Twinkie Recipe

Instead of crying, try trying this homemade Twinkie recipe!

I’m sure you’ve all heard the news by now, and hopefully have had time to mourn, deny, cry, scream, tantrum, and finally shower. Hostess is closing its doors forever. That means no more Twinkies, no more Wonder Bread, no more DingDongs and maybe even the end of America as we know it. (Not the whole continent, just the United States of).

Personally I don’t feel very affected. I think I’ve eaten a Twinkie maybe twice in my life, I’ve had a handful of DingDongs, I have never ever sniffed a slice of Wonder Bread. I was not raised a Hostess Kid. The only DingDongs I did eat were in highschool, from the vending machines, bought with my “Sandwich Artist” money — you know the place — and truthfully I much preferred Nutty Bars.

But on the grander scheme, Hostess is an iconic American brand, like Ford and Levi’s and Boeing and Yankee Candle. It’s weird and sad to imagine it gone from the shelves forever (not to mention the thousands of jobs lost) even though, if the legends are true, they do keep forever so you could potentially stock up on enough of them to last you a while. Bill Clinton threw one into the time capsule back in 1999. I bet that one’s still good!
Or you could make your own Twinkies. They are pretty simple, especially if you want to invest in a canoe pan to give you the proper cylindrical shape and size. I am a notoriously cheap bastard so I used the “folded up foil” method that Todd Wilbur came up with. I mixed up a basic sponge cake recipe, then baked them. The filling is a quick icing of butter and powdered sugar. Positively, the original Twinkies use shortening, not butter, which may help explain their supernatural shelf life, but homie don’t play that, so homie uses butter. Sorry.

With that in mind, these don’t taste exactly like Hostess Twinkies, but they are pretty close and some may say, even a little better.

Instructions

Watch the video to see how to fold your own Twinkie molds out of aluminum foil if you don’t have a canoe pan (cupcake pan will also work, though it doesn’t give the right shape obviously)

Grease your pans well and set aside. (Cupcake pans do not use liners, just grease.)

Set oven to 375ºF.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks on medium speed until loosened up, 30-60 seconds.

Gradually add in the sugar. Once sugar is all in, increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 3 minutes. The mixture will be light and creamy-looking and will have almost doubled in volume.

Reduce speed to low and slowly pour in boiling water, careful not to splash yourself, then vanilla and lemon juice. Make sure it’s well combined.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and add it gradually in to the egg mixture, still on low speed, until you have a smooth, creamy batter. Set aside.

In a very clean bowl, beat the reserved 3 egg whites and cream of tartar for 30-90 seconds on high heat with a whisk attachment until soft peak form. The whites should be foamy and somewhat stiff, though still moist and soft looking.

Fold in one quarter of the whites into the first batter.

Gently fold in the remaining whites.

Divide batter between 12 molds and bake 13-15 minutes, until the edges have begun to pull away from the sides and the tops are set. Cool on racks in the molds.

Make the filling while the cakes cool: Beat butter, vanilla, and cream together then slowly add in powdered sugar on low speed until combined. Beat on medium speed for 30-60 seconds until smooth. Put into a ziploc bag or piping bag and leave at room temperature.

Once the cakes are cool, unwrap from their molds. Use a chopstick to poke 3 holes down the center of each cake, lengthwise, being careful not to go all the way through the cake.

Cut a 1/4″ tip off the corner of the icing bag and squirt a little icing into each hole, slowly and gently.

10 Comments

DaveKon November 25, 2012 at 8:52 am

Thanks Hilah,
Your instructions went off without a hitch. We used a rectangular, 8x mini-loaf pan. the twinkie loaves were very appreciated by the teenager of the house where we celebrated Thanksgiving this year. ~DK

Great you did a Twinkie Recipe. Like you, I don’t miss Twinkies per say. I have not had one in 40 years. But I do think it is sad that 18000 people have or will lose their jobs, at least temporarily. Maybe the buyer of the Brand name and Recipe will offer jobs to those who worked for them.

I did like their Apple Pie, but that has been 20 years or more since I have had one. Probably, I would not make them if I had a clone recipe, but would be fun to have it in my recipe collection of things I should try and make !!!!

On a side note, I did see your advertising of Hilah Cooking on some internet news site. Don’t remember which one. But thought it was cool to see your pretty smile and say to myself, “Hey I’ve seen some of her videos”.

Can we expect to see you soon on Food Network? I am not a Foodie show junkie and don’t watch them often. Or even know of many of them. I do know of Rachael Ray. I have seen her show twice in the last year. For me, she is the Queen of the hill. But her 30 minute meals drives me nuts. Most can not be made in 30 minutes for the average person. She gained popularity because of her 30 minute meals concept. Can you come up with a con to kick her off the hill.

She is the only food show host that I can say I enjoy watching. A pretty smile goes a long way. But if she is going to say, this can be made in 30 minutes, let it be true. 35-40 minutes, OK, but 45 or more does not qualify as a 30 minute meal to me.

Yeah, I hope they do something like that. Terrible timing, especially, right before the giant gift-buying season.
I do like Rachel Ray, too. She’s definitely watchable and seems very down-to-earth, not pretentious about her food like *some* people on the FoodNetwork (I’m looking at you, Ina Garten 😉

Hi I have a friend that said that i would be her hero if I could find Twinkies and found your website. I will be meeting for lunch on Thurs and out of all the websites I loved your recipe the way you did the best and will be surprising her with your wonderful Twinkie Recipe so I would say I am her hero for making it for her but your recipe is what will do it :). Thanks a bunch!!!…

I had never eaten a Twinkie before, so when I heard Hostess was closing up shop I decided I should try one. Unfortunately, I could not find any where I live. I was completely bummed out until I come across your recipe. I quickly made the recipe, being sure to follow every step closely. When they were finally done they literally melted in my mouth! Now I wish I had tried one while Hostess was still going. Your recipe was soo delicious and made my day wonderful! I will defiantly print this recipe out and make it again!
Thanks for the recipe,
Tammy

Hi Hilah
One of your invisible fans here! We don’t have Twinkies in Australia but you make them look so good that I can’t resist having a go. Just wondering: Why should the water be boiling, does it serve a particular purpose? Many thanks for your great site and all the time and effort you and Chris put into it … I’m having fun and getting full simply by reading!! ♥

That is a fantastic question, Maureen! And one I never considered. The “hot water sponge cake” method is as old as dirt and I had to think hard about what purpose it serves. The best answer I can come up with is that it helps dissolve the sugar in the eggs so you don’t end up with gritty sugar granules. But now I want to try the recipe with cold water to see what difference it makes. The warmth might also help increase the volume of the egg yolks.
Dang. You stumped me! 🙂
Thanks so much for writing. Really happy you are enjoying the site.